Embodiments herein generally relate to cutting plotters, and in particular to a plate that can be installed in a cutting plotter to extend the life of the cutting blade.
A cutting plotter, sometimes referred to in the commercial world as a digital vinyl cutter, is similar to a pen plotter, with the exception that a cutting blade is used instead of a pen. A sheet of media, such as vinyl, paper or other material, is moved back and forth in the process direction by a knurled roll/idler roll combination. Movement in the cross process direction is accomplished by moving the cutting blade via a carriage. Backing on the opposite side of the sheet from the cutting blade is typically a polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE (sold commonly under the tradename Teflon® and is available from DuPont Co., Wilmington, Del., USA) strip or other soft sacrificial material on top of a flat sheet-metal cutting surface. The purpose of the Teflon® strip is to offer a relatively soft sacrificial surface for the cutting blade to enter when the cutting blade cuts completely through the media. Without that sacrificial Teflon® layer, the cutting blade would contact the sheet metal cutting surface when cutting all the way through the media, thereby damaging or at least dulling and reducing the life of the cutting blade. The Teflon® strip abrades with use and needs to be replaced quite frequently. One solution to this problem is to temporarily attach a plastic backing sheet to the media that will be cut. However, this is a time consuming process, requires some skill on the part of the operator, and would add additional material for the cutting knife to come in contact with causing additional loss of cutting knife life. In addition, a plastic backing sheet would also seriously compromise the auto feeding capability of the digital cutter.